After Disney did Fantasia it seems that a lot of the early work of it's rivals, Warner Bros. and MGM started having a lot of that film's feel blended into a number of their own works - the use of no dialog with just actions and music, "sound effects" done by musical instruments like flutes, cymbals, and xylophones (to name a few), and lovely animation. Dance of the Weed was one of the lot of those cartoons that MGM's Rudolf Ising cranked out with a Fantasia-like feel... and he did a beautiful job here.
The story concerns, well, a weed who wants acceptance by the other flowers and plants in the meadow where he lives. He is the laughingstock of the meadow and is picked on by all. Then he runs into a pretty little flower who likes to ballet dance along with her sister flowers and falls in love with her. The Weed tries to dance along with them, but in his lankiness trips all over the place and all of the flowers regard him as a complete oaf. He wins the girl flower's heart however, when he bravely saves her from some nasty snapdragons.
The ballet dance parts with the flowers is indeed very Fantasia-like, and it comes across as dazzling. The colors of the animation here are just the right shades to give one the misty feel of the meadow in the early morning hours, the lushness of the fields and forest where the flowers and Weed dance, and the darkness where the snapdragon lives. The one thing that also must be said is the character of the Weed. You get a genuine feel for him. He looks like a fool and acts like one, but damn it, you like him. Then we really like him when we find out that this clumsy fool has the heart of a warrior.
The one drawback to Dance of the Weed is it's rarity. I only saw it twice in the 80's and only just now have I been able to see it on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang (a space of about 20 years between viewings!). My best advice is to keep your attention glued to Boomerang in case it is played more often. However, you can get a taste with a few clips of it on the first DVD volume of Tom And Jerry in the special features section entitled "The Music of MGM".
It's extreme rareness is irritating, but if you do happen to catch Dance of the Weed be prepared for one of the most beautiful works to come out of early MGM.
The story concerns, well, a weed who wants acceptance by the other flowers and plants in the meadow where he lives. He is the laughingstock of the meadow and is picked on by all. Then he runs into a pretty little flower who likes to ballet dance along with her sister flowers and falls in love with her. The Weed tries to dance along with them, but in his lankiness trips all over the place and all of the flowers regard him as a complete oaf. He wins the girl flower's heart however, when he bravely saves her from some nasty snapdragons.
The ballet dance parts with the flowers is indeed very Fantasia-like, and it comes across as dazzling. The colors of the animation here are just the right shades to give one the misty feel of the meadow in the early morning hours, the lushness of the fields and forest where the flowers and Weed dance, and the darkness where the snapdragon lives. The one thing that also must be said is the character of the Weed. You get a genuine feel for him. He looks like a fool and acts like one, but damn it, you like him. Then we really like him when we find out that this clumsy fool has the heart of a warrior.
The one drawback to Dance of the Weed is it's rarity. I only saw it twice in the 80's and only just now have I been able to see it on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang (a space of about 20 years between viewings!). My best advice is to keep your attention glued to Boomerang in case it is played more often. However, you can get a taste with a few clips of it on the first DVD volume of Tom And Jerry in the special features section entitled "The Music of MGM".
It's extreme rareness is irritating, but if you do happen to catch Dance of the Weed be prepared for one of the most beautiful works to come out of early MGM.